[Math] Finding the marginal density of the following joint density function.

multivariable-calculusprobability

This is problem 15 taken from Chapter 3 of John A. Rice's Mathematical Statistics and Data Analysis (3rd. ed.):

Suppose that $X$ and $Y$ have the joint density function $f(x,y) = c\sqrt{1-x^2-y^2},$ where $x^2+y^2\le{1}$. Find the marginal densities of $X$ and $Y$.

Before this problem, I had to figure out what $c$ was, which through the help of this website, turned out to be $\frac{3}{2\pi}$. To do this, you have to convert to polar coordinates. Hence, I have the joint density function in polar form to be $f(r,\theta) = \frac{3}{2\pi}r\sqrt{1-r^2}$. What I was thinking of doing was as we do usually with transformations, first to write out the cdf, $F_x(x) = P(X\le{x})$. Since $X=R\cos{\Theta}$, we would replace the $X$, giving us $P(X\le{x}) = P(R\cos{\Theta}\le{x})$. But from here, I don't know how to proceed… Any hints will be appreciated.

Best Answer

Marginal pdf of $X$ is $$h(x)=\int_{-\sqrt{1-x^2}}^{\sqrt{1-x^2}}f(x,y)dy=c\int_{-\sqrt{1-x^2}}^{\sqrt{1-x^2}}\sqrt{1-x^2-y^2}dy$$

Let $\sqrt{1-x^2}=a$ then it becomes $$c\int_{-a}^{a}\sqrt{a^2-y^2}dy=2c\big(\frac{y}{2}\sqrt{a^2-y^2}+\frac{a^2}{2}\sin^{-1}\frac{y}{a}\big)|_{0}^a=2c(\pi a^2/4)=3a^2/4=3(1-x^2)/4$$

You can compute cdf as $$P(X\leq x)=H(x)=\int_{-1}^xh(t)dt$$

Related Question